The Road We Take
by UniversalOverlordess
Summary: When Kurt hands Blaine his Bucket List, he has no idea that he just made it Blaine's goal to make sure that everything on that list is fulfilled; Kurt's senior year is most definitely going to be interesting. Sequel to The Light at the End.
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimers:**_ I do not own Glee.

This is the sequel to the fic titled _The __Light at the End_. If you haven't read that one, I highly suggest that you do, otherwise this story will not make sense. Happy reading!

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><p><em><strong>Every man dies - Not every man really lives.<strong>_

_**William Ross Wallace**_

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><p>"<em>Hi, Mom. It's me. I know that it's been a while, but, you see... I was in the hospital. I-I got a heart transplant, Mom.<em>

"_Things have been really crazy around here lately. Dad has trouble letting me go out of the house; I don't know if that's because he's scared or... Or something else completely, but today is one of the first days that he's let me out of the house alone. It's actually really quiet today... Finn's off with New Directions in New York – they're going to Nationals. _

"_Oh, I didn't tell you about that, did I? Dad got married to Carole three weeks ago. They plan on taking all of us to Hawaii this summer. Maybe I'll be able to convince him to let Blaine come along too. Blaine he... He's my boyfriend, Mom. I-I love him. I love his _so_ much. He's what got me through this; he was always there – he's _still_ always there, and he's been so supportive. He took me to my first biopsy and stayed with me the entire time. I don't know what I'd do without him. He's my everything._

"_He's my light, Mom. My light at the end."_

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><p><em><strong>Beginning<strong>_

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><p>Waking up after being put under anesthesia had been rather odd.<p>

Everything was slightly fuzzy, and Kurt could barely make out anything in the room, his head full of the constant beeping sounds and hushed tones. He couldn't tell if the lights were on, or if the light that was blinding him was from the sun; deciding to not care, he shifted on the bed, letting out a small moan when a sharp pain shot up his back.

Immediately there was a sound of movement and he felt a hand grasp his in a tight but comforting grip. "Kurt? Kurt, are you awake?"

He let out a groan and attempted to open his eyes. They refused to open so he let out another groan and said, in a rather croaky voice, "Good morning."

There was a chuckle from above him and from it he was able to identify his dad holding his hand. "Hey, there sleepy. How are you doing?" His dad's voice was muffled, as though his mouth was covered with some sort of cloth.

"I dunno," he slurred out. "'m not able t' open my eyes yet..."

The hand around his shifted slightly, and a finger began moving back and forth along the back of his hand. "You just had a major surgery; the stuff they gave you to put you under was really strong, and they said you'd be drowsy after."

Kurt attempted to open his eyes again. "Drowsy?"

"Yeah," his dad replied softly.

"Okay..." He frowned, listening to the beeping. "Am I still in the hospital?" he asked, glad that he wasn't slurring anymore. Maybe he was waking up more.

"Yes, you are. You got out of surgery about an hour ago. How are you feeling?"

Kurt shifted again, then once more attempted to open his eyes. His dad's face was blurry, but he could see his eyes clearly; he could see the relief, the hope, and the happiness. Eventually Kurt's eyesight cleared and he could see the mask on his dad's face, the shower curtain-like cap over the top of his head and the bright yellow of the gown he was wearing. Kurt lifted his incredibly heavy left hand and attempted to point it at the attire, but was only able to wag it around in the air before he dropped it to his stomach. "What's with the horrible outfit, Dad?"

Burt let out a laugh. "You're in a clean room, Kurt. We have to wear these when we visit you."

Kurt glanced down at the gown again. "Well, it's horrible. And very bright."

Burt reached up with his other hand and ran a hand through his hair. "But if it keeps you from getting sick, then we'll have to deal with it, right?"

Kurt let out a sigh. "I suppose."

He let his eyes drift shut again, but they snapped back open when a small sob left his dad's lips. "Dad?" he asked softly, turning again so that he was looking at his dad. Burt had his head lowered so Kurt was unable to see his face. "Dad, what's wrong?"

"You made it."

Kurt blinked, then turned back so he was looking straight ahead at the wall. "Do you mean through the surgery?"

"No," his dad said, sniffing lightly. "You made it through the whole thing, this whole stupid thing with your heart failing. Never once did I hear you complain about it, and you just kept going even when most people would have given up."

Kurt smiled softly. "Must have gotten that from you or Mom."

His dad nodded, sniffed one more time then straightened. "There are quite a few people who would like to see you. I'll let them know that they can come in, okay?"

As soon as he nodded, Burt turned around and motioned at something that Kurt couldn't see; he assumed it was the window that took up the entire side of the room. There was a loud hissing sound, then the door to his room opened and Carole, Finn, Blaine and Mercedes wandered in. "Hey," he said to them.

No one said anything to him; they stared at him, each one of them looking rather ridiculous with the attire that they had to wear. He shifted, feeling uncomfortable under the multiple stares. Eventually, Carole cleared her throat and said in a voice that was barely above a whisper. "Hey you."

"Hi," he replied.

"How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine," he said, not really knowing what to say to all of the 'are you okay' questions. "Um.. How are you guys?"

"We're fine, really, don't worry about us, okay?" Mercedes said, speaking for the first time since she'd entered the room. Taking a step forward, she reached out her hand and let it land on his wrist. "It's good to see you, Kurt, it really is."

He smiled up at her, then switched their hands around so that they were holding hands. "It's good to see you too."

He looked past her and locked eyes with Blaine, who was still staring at him. "Hi," he whispered. Blaine didn't move, just gave him a soft smile. "Are you just gonna stand over there?"

Blaine walked forward and took the hand Mercedes gave him. "Hey there..." he said softly, barley noticing everyone else vacating the room, so it was just the two of them together. "H-how are you feeling?"

Kurt attempted to roll his eyes. "Everyone keeps asking me that. I'm doing fine. I'm pretty sure that I'm on a bunch of pain medications, but right now I don't really care."

Blaine just nodded, then lifted Kurt's hand up and pressed it against his cheek.

Kurt frowned. "Blaine? Are you oka-"

He was cut off by a small sniffle and a kiss pressed to his palm. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, I just... Kurt I was so scared and..."

Blinking, Kurt leaned up the most that he could and gave his hand a little yank to pull Blaine closer. "Hey, hey, come here."

Blaine moved, then sat down on the edge of the bed and leaned down, brushing a gentle kiss to Kurt's temple. Kurt closed his eyes and allowed himself to take the moment in. "I'm sorry," he muttered, kissing the side of Kurt's face softly. "I just – the entire time you were in surgery I was freaking out, and when the doctor came out my heart wouldn't stop pounding, but then you were fine and out of surgery and you have hear and-" He stopped then took a deep breath. "I'm sorry," he said again.

"What are you sorry for?"

"I'm freaking out."

Kurt let out a tired laugh. "I think I kind of like you when you freak out. Your cheeks turn red and it's really cute."

Blaine snickered. "I'm glad you find my freaking out cute. It makes me feel so good, you have no idea."

Kurt giggled, then let out a tired hum. "God, I'm tired. But I just woke up, why is that?"

Blaine moved down slightly and trailed kisses across his jaw, then planted a final one just under Kurt's lower lip. "You were put under with anesthesia. You're going to be tired for a while, babe."

Kurt hummed again. "I'm gonna fall asleep now, 'kay?"

Blaine nodded against his chin. "Of course. I'll stay here until you wake up again. Good night."

"G'night..."

He let his eyelids fall down, and fell deep into sleep's embrace.

He spent another week in the hospital before he was released with a list of medications to take and orders to not do anything hard or tiring. While he thought that the rules were slightly exaggerated, he decided to follow them when he found himself panting from exhaustion after trying to make his family breakfast.

For a while, his house was full of friends and family visiting, and while most of the visits took place with him on the couch or in his bed with very bad cases of bed-hair, he didn't really mind. During all of the visits, Blaine's hand was in his; feeling that comfort was amazing.

Then on day someone mentioned going and visiting the boy's grave. _The_ boy's grave, the one that gave Kurt his heart. Kurt had inhaled sharply, leaving Blaine to stare at him, then reach over and place a hand on where he knew the scar was. "Do you... Do you think that I should go?"

Blaine had thought about it, but then nodded. "I think that _we_ should go."

..

Kurt didn't like putting roses on graves.

He always felt most vulnerable standing in front of a grave, a pack of flowers in his hand. Maybe it was the raw emotion that seemed to come out of everyone when they came face to face with reality, that yes, their loved one was gone. He'd felt that same way when he'd been brought to his mom's grave a few days after she'd been buried.

Now, normally he didn't visit stranger's graves, at all, but this – this was important, and he had to do it. Gripping the flower bouquet tightly in his hands he took a deep breath and took the necessary steps forward, then froze.

Someone else was already at the grave, standing stiffly with their hands in their pockets. Kurt bit his lip, debating whether or not to continue with his journey. _Yes,_ he finally decided. He needed to do this, no matter how awkward it would be. As he drew closer he could see another figure, firmly latched on to the man with his hands in his pockets. When he got as close as he dared he turned and faced the grave, reading the name engraved into the stone:

_Kevin Larson_

_Beloved son and boyfriend_

_He will be forever missed and loved._

_1989 – 2010_

Kurt inhaled sharply, and that drew the attention from the two others standing by him.

"Excuse me, but what do you think you're doing here?"

His head shot up to see the man staring at him coldly; the woman hadn't even budged from her spot, her hands holding the man's right arm in a death grip.

"Young man, you heard me. What are you doing here?"

Kurt bit his lip tightly. "I was just visiting," he said, holding up the flowers. The man's eyes narrowed.

"Did you know him? At all? Because I don't remember ever seeing you at any of the house parties we threw, or when his friends came over."

Kurt shook his head. "No, I didn't know him personally, but-"

"Then I'm going to have to ask you to leave," the man said sternly. "We're still mourning. We don't need random people walking up and ruining that."

Kurt let go of a breath he didn't even know that he'd been holding. He took a few steps forward and bent down, placing the flowers next to the grave. "I'm sorry," he said, standing up to go.

"Wait."

It was the woman who'd spoken. Kurt turned around. She'd finally let go of her husband's arm and had taken a tentative step forward, her hand outstretched. "How did you know him?"

The older man sighed. "Mary-"

"No, Evan. Just let me ask this boy a question. It's not going to ruin our mourning period." She turned her intense gaze back to Kurt, who was fiddling with his hands, trying not to seem too intimidated. "Please tell me how you knew where to find his grave."

Kurt sighed. "I found out his name from my doctor," he answered honestly. "I just wanted to know the name of the person who saved my life."

Mary took another step forward. "He saved your life?"

Kurt nodded, looking back at the grave. Unconsciously, his left hand drifted up and landed on his scar; he could feel his new heart – _Kevin's_ heart – pulsing lively, letting him live right this second. He heard Mary inhale sharply, then a second later felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up into Mary's gaze, slightly worried about what she'd say.

"I'm glad that, even in death, our son was able to help someone out. In his final act, he saved a life. Thank you."

He stared at her, confused. "What do you mean?"

She gave him a watery smile, then stepped back and took her husband's hand. "A part of him is still in this world today. It makes me think that where ever he is, he's happy. So, thank you."

She waved as her husband took one last look at the grave then pulled her towards the other exit on the far side. Kurt watched them go, not quite knowing what to say. He stood there for a few moments, listening to the breeze around him until he felt an arm slip around his waist.

"Babe, you okay? Who was that?"

"They were Kevin Larson's parents, Blaine."

Blaine grip around his waist tightened. "Are you okay?"

Kurt shrugged. "I'm not sure..." He turned his head and let it fall on to Blaine's shoulder. "But I will be. I'm ready to head back now. I talked to my mom, and I gave my respects for Kevin, even though it wasn't in the way that I wanted to."

Blaine nodded, pressed a kiss to his temple. "How about you go wait by the gate for a second? I'll be there shortly."

When Kurt was out of hearing range, Blaine turned back to the grave and bent down. He stared at the name engraved and inhaled, then exhaled sharply. "I have no words to fully describe how thankful I am to you. I'm terribly sorry that you had to die, but..." He straightened his back and glanced over his shoulder so that he could see Kurt standing by the gate, his phone out and his fingers moving. A smile grew and he looked back at the grave. "I really don't know what I would have done if he'd died. He's my everything, and all I can do is say thank you, over and over." He stood up, then sighed. "I'll probably be coming back to visit you. Just to make sure you understand how thankful I am."

With a soft smile donning his face, Blaine walked over to Kurt, took his arm, then kissed his cheek and led them out to the area where Blaine had parked. "How are you holding up this summer?"

Kurt sighed, letting Blaine open the passenger door for him, then slid into the seat. "I'm taking a few online classes to make up some of the credits I didn't get while I was in the hospital, so... Yay for school?"

Blaine let out a small laugh, but reached over and took Kurt's left hand. "How many credits do you have to take this summer?"

"I'm only taking about three because most of the other ones that I needed were full by the time I'd signed up. I'm going to take the remaining one during school this year."

"So your dad is letting you go back?"

Kurt let out a snicker and squeezed Blaine's hand. "I think that he'd find it very hard to convince to convince me to home-school. And he'd be an awful teacher."

"At least he lets you out of the house when you want."

"Today is the first time he's done that, Blaine, and it's only because I practically begged him, then said that you'd be coming with me."

Blaine raised an eyebrow. "Oh, so _that's_ the only reason you wanted to see me today? So that you could get out?"

Kurt let a grin appear on his face. "No, I also wanted you for your gas mileage. It's much better than mine is."

Blaine nodded. "Okay, okay. I see what I truly am to you."

They laughed together for a while, and then Blaine asked, "Do you want to go out for some ice cream? We have a while before you're supposed to be back at your house."

"Ooh, I'd love that, actually. I haven't had ice cream in forever."

Blaine let his jaw drop dramatically. "Kurt Hummel. That is just blasphemy against dairy items!"

"Believe it or not I haven't really been one for many dairy products."

His phone beeped on the way to the ice cream store and he opened it up to see a text from Tina, telling him about a Glee party that was going to happen two weeks before school. _You_ _have to be there, _the text said. _Put this in your calender._

_And bring your boyfriend. You two are so adorable together, and it'll be great to see you smiling like you do when you're around him. _

Another text message arrives after he finishes putting the Glee party into his calender. _And don't forget about the pre-Hawaii shopping trip this Saturday!_

He didn't even know that they'd arrived at the ice cream shop until his door opened and Blaine held out a hand for him to take. "Oh, sorry! I got a message from Tina telling me about a glee party before school starts. You have been invited."

"Well," Blaine said, taking Kurt's hand and pulling him out of the car. "How can I refuse something like that?"

Blaine ordered them both cookie dough and vanilla, double-scooped, then joined Kurt at the table in the corner and placed Kurt's bowl of ice cream in front of him. They ate in silence for a while until Blaine cleared his throat. "Are you sure that you want me to come with you on the trip?"

Kurt's spoon froze, halfway to his mouth. "What do you mean?"

Blaine made a shrugging motion with his shoulders and hands. "Well, isn't this some sort of... honeymoon type of thing? It'll be odd to impose."

Kurt let out a bark of laughter, then brought the spoon back to his mouth. "I doubt that my dad will have any issue with you joining, Blaine. He _loves_ you." He reached out and took Blaine's hand in a way that would seem like a thank you gesture to any one else watching, but to them meant a lot more then that. "You helped me through one of the most horrible times of my life, remember?"

Blaine nodded. "Okay, you can talk to him then."

In the end Kurt was able to convince his dad to let Blaine come a long (it took a while, but Kurt had a hunch that maybe his dad wasn't agreeing for the fun of it, because when he agreed to it finally, it was straight away). The trip to Hawaii was for three weeks and while he didn't get a tan, he didn't get a burn either. Everyone else, though, came back darker, and a week after they'd returned found him staring at his arm, which was sitting next to Blaine's on the coffee table.

"My god, I'm a ghost. I bet you that I glow in the dark!"

Blaine let out a laugh then began to run his hand up and down Kurt's arm. "Don't worry about it. You said that you'd never been able to tan so-"

"I know that! But _look_ at me!"

Blaine's eyes darkened slightly and his grip around Kurt's arm tightened just a bit. "Oh, I am."

Kurt flushed, but rolled his eyes. "So are we still going to the party tonight?"

Blaine nodded, then finished off the rest of his ice cream. "And we'll stay as long as there isn't any beer or wine. I told you about the horrible time of my life when I got drunk and completely embarrassed myself in front of everyone there?"

"No, you didn't tell me."

"Well, there you go. I got drunk and embarrassed myself in front of everyone. So if there is any drinking going on, we leave. Pronto. Like Finn does when he sees Rachel storming over to him with a new piece of music."

Kurt rolled his eyes. "There's going to be no drinking, I promise you."

And there wasn't any drinking at the party, all though Kurt was seventy-eight percent positive that Puck showed up drunk. He and Blaine had arrived a few minutes early to help Tina set up. The party was being hosted at her house, seeing as her parents were going out for a late movie and dinner. "They said they'd probably be out all night. Because they might want to see more movies...? Well, that's what my mom told me, so we have the house all night. To ourselves."

The party went off on a swing, with music blasting and people chowing down on the chips like they hadn't eaten in years. Mercedes had arrived right on time with Sam, and when she saw him, she dumped everything that she'd brought into Sam's arms and made a bee-line over to him, Kurt smirking the whole while. He knew they were dating, even though they tried to keep it a secret.

"Hey, Kurt! How're you doing?"

He leaned up slightly from his spot on the couch and gave her a hug that she met halfway. "I'm doing great, how are you?"

He moved over so that he was squished up against Blaine and allowed her room to sit down next to them. She took it and grabbed his hands. "I'm doing just fine," she said softly, staring at him with intense eyes.

He moved his upper body back a bit, which caused Blaine to take his shoulders in his hands and kiss the back of his neck. "Why are you staring at me like that?"

Mercedes let out a sniff and Kurt froze.

"Mercedes, I didn't-"

She shook her head, then let go of his hands to wipe a tear away. "It's not that, Kurt. I just... I still can't believe that you're _here_. I thought that... I prepared for the worst and-"

Kurt bit his lip, then reached for her. She fell into his arms, crying softly, and he planted a kiss on the top of her head, vaguely feeling Blaine's fingers on his back. "It's okay, Mercedes. I'm here now, you know."

She pulled back and he was relieved to see that she had a watery grin on her face. "I know, I know. You're still here, and you're still saving me from all of my possible fashion disasters."

He nodded happily. "You've got that right."

No one else cried in front of him once the party got into full motion. Sam had slapped him on the back when he'd opened the door for him, then handed him one of the many pizza boxes that he'd brought and said, "I got this one especially for you. It's the veggie one. No one else will eat it, so there you go."

Mike ended up showing up late with Puck, each of them carrying in packs of coke products and tubs of ice cream. Finn, along with Rachel, brought over Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero and Rock Band, which was enough to pull all of the guys' attention to the TV, allowing Kurt to sit back and watch Blaine laugh, sing and dance a long with the rest of the guys.

He didn't remember when, exactly, he fell asleep, but he did remember watching Puck attempt to teach Blaine how to play a certain guitar part in Guitar Hero. Blaine had been laughing, looking adorable like always, and then the next thing Kurt knew he was waking up with Blaine's arms wrapped around him and the sounds of snoring filling his ears.

Groaning, he stretched out his legs and shifted slightly, feeling Blaine's arms tighten around him more. "Babe, go back 'tsleep. S'night-night."

"We weren't supposed to end up spending the night, Blaine. We're going to get in trouble."

"No we'ot. Called your dad. Said spendin' t'night."

Kurt pulled away from Blaine's arms and reached down to where his jacket was sitting on the floor by the couch.

"Babe, no," Blaine called out tiredly. "You're warm!"

Kurt dug his phone out and unlocked it, his head jerking back when the light hit his eyes. Blaine's arms around him pulled back a bit, yanking him with them, and his boyfriend groaned. "Could've warned a guy, you know?" he said, sounding very much awake.

"Ugh, it's five in the morning," he said, putting his phone back down and allowing Blaine to pull him back against his chest.

"That gives us plenty of time to go back to sleep," Blaine said softly, nuzzling and kissing Kurt's neck softly.

They laid together in silence for a while, Kurt rubbing his hand up and down Blaine's arm. Eventually, though, Blaine let out a huff. "Now I'm too awake to even try to go back to sleep," he whispered in Kurt's ear. "Sit up for me, will you?"

Kurt frowned at him, but sat up anyway, feeling Blaine following the movement. He turned his upper body around in Blaine's lap and had to smile. Blaine's hair was always wild when woke up from sleeping, no matter how much hair gel he'd used the day before. Unable to resist the urge, Kurt reached over and ran a hand through his curls. Blaine's eyes slipped closed and a drowsy smile took over his face. "I like your curls," Kurt said softly. "You shouldn't wear so much hair gel."

"But it gets all messy and out of control if I don't."

Kurt hummed, then leaned forward and kissed Blaine's forehead. A light sigh of happiness escaped Blaine's lips, so he began to trail kisses down Blaine's face; he kisses his left temple, then his right, both cheeks, the corner of Blaine's mouth, and then finally his lips. He made the kiss short, though (and from Blaine's sad moan as he pulled away, Kurt could tell that he was also disappointed), then pulled away completely.

"No – wait," Blaine said as Kurt left his lap to stand and grab the blanket lying on the floor by Artie's empty wheelchair. "You're warm, come back! Where are you going?"

Kurt bent down, reached into his bag and grabbed a worn, rather old looking notebook. He tossed it at Blaine. "Look at number twelve, okay?" He said with a wink. He gathered up the blanket and headed outside, closing the door as quietly as he could.

Slightly confused, Blaine reached down into Kurt's bag to grab Kurt's cell phone. He turned it on, blinked at the harsh light and then flipped the note book open, holding the phone upside down so the light was shining on the page.

_Number 1: Fall in love._

_Number 2: see a musical (any musical) on Broadway._

_Number 3: finally get the courage to go and eat sushi._

_Number 3 – edited: (why did I say go eat sushi? That's _never_ going to happen) go deep sea diving._

_Number 4: go to my senior prom._

Blaine stared down at the notebook. This... This was Kurt's Bucket List. It was everything that he'd planned on doing before he died. He'd written all of it down when he thought that he didn't have long to live...

_Oh my god..._

He ran a hand down the page, trying to stop himself from crying. He cleared his throat, then turned the page, scanning quickly to find number twelve.

_Number 12: watch the sunrise. _

_(number 12: note: Not with just anyone, though. I want it to be a romantic one, with a boyfriend or... maybe someone who is just interested with me)._

Blaine smiled, wondering how old Kurt had been when he'd written that wish down. His handwriting reminded him of a younger teenagers. Blaine was about to close the notebook when he noticed, under the note for number twelve, something else written that had been mostly erased. He bent down and brought the light closer, his eyes straining to see what had been written. The handwriting was different, and more mature, looking a lot like today's Kurt's handwriting.

_Edit: number 12: ...who am I kidding? This one won't ever happen. Like any of these will ever happen. ...especially number one._

Blaine flipped back to the first page to reread number one.

_Fall in love._

Biting his lip, Blaine closed the notebook. _He really didn't think that any of these would come true..._

It didn't even take him a second before he was bolting off of the couch and hurrying outside, notebook still in hand. Kurt was sitting on the lawn, curled up in the blanket and his face turned up to the sky. Blaine hurried over, his arms folded tightly to his side, and sat down next to Kurt, who opened the blanket up and kissed his cheek.

"Hi," he said as he plastered himself to Kurt's side. "You're warm. Come closer."

Kurt laughed, but allowed himself to be situated so that his back was resting against Blaine's chest. "Thank you for joining me."

Blaine let his head fall against the side of Kurt's head and let out a small laugh. "No problem. Did you want this to be a talking while watching the sunrise thing? Or a quiet one."

"Hmm, a quiet one, if you don't mind."

"That's perfectly fine with me."

Blaine had only watched one sunrise in his life. He'd been ten, and his father had gotten him up at three to take him to the "spot where my dad and I would watch the sunrise every weekend". He'd hated being dragged up the hill and had fallen and scraped his knees more time than he'd cared to count.

But once he'd been set down on the rock at the top of the hill and had looked up to the sky he had to say that it had been worth it. The sunrise had been _gorgeous_. All warm colors and just... It had been amazing for him.

While that sunrise had been beautiful, for some reason this one was even more beautiful. He stared up at it, not talking, and his arms wrapped around the love of his life. "Oh god," he whispered, not even registering that he had. "This is amazing..."

There was no reply, so Blaine tilted his head and glanced down at Kurt. "Babe?"

Kurt's eyes were closed and his lips were parted as he breathed evenly. Blaine let out a soft chuckle, then kissed Kurt's temple.

"Good night, Kurt," he said softly, allowing his eyes to close.

Ten minutes later, they shot open again. He sat up slightly, then reached around him to grab the notebook and bring it out of the covers. He placed it on Kurt's folded legs and opened it, scanning each page quickly, making a mental note of which wishes could be completed during their senior year. When he was done, he tucked the notebook behind him again, then gathered Kurt more securely in his arms, kissed him one more time, then let his eyes close as the sun continued to rise in the distance as he thought of which wish on Kurt's list he should start with.

_Number 32: picnic while stargazing. (so what if I'm romantic? I want to do it)_

Humming a little to himself, Blaine gave in to the urge to give Kurt's temple another kiss. "Your romantic side is adorable, though, Kurt."

In his arms, Kurt mumbled something incoherently, then managed out, "l've you, Blaine."

_God_, Blaine was just too in love with the boy in his arms. His heart full of happiness, he shifted them so that they were lying on the ground, then spent the rest of the sunrise just_ looking _at his boyfriend. "I love you too, Kurt. I love you too."

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><p><em><strong>Author's notes:<strong>_ So this is the beginning of the way overdue sequel to _The Light at the End_. I hope that you all enjoyed this, and please let me know what you thought! As you can tell, this fic is going to be full of happiness, love, and chocolate.

With the occasional angst.

Because I can.

:)

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, and again, let me know what you thought, please? It would make my day/week/Valentines/existence.

Love you all,

UO


	2. Chapter 2

_**Disclaimer:**_I do not own Glee.

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><p><strong>edited on 223/2012**: I got a lot of messages saying that they weren't able to read this chapter, and for some odd reason FF wouldn't let me replace it, so here is the new chapter. Let me know if you were able to read the chapter this time, please!

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><p><em><strong>Chapter two<strong>_

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><p>The halls of Dalton Academy were rather quiet that morning.<p>

The majority of the Warblers had the same study hall hour together, and they had received special permission to have it in the senior commons. The senior commons had the softest couches and more table room, so it was easy to spread binders and homework out on the tables. At the moment, it seemed most of the Warblers were busy working on math, a subject that Blaine was really okay with not thinking about.

Instead of looking at the chapter he had homework in, he was busy staring at his phone, as if trying to will it into buzzing.

"Waiting for a text from Kurt?" David asked, moving over so that he was sitting right by his friend.

Blaine nodded, his chin resting on his palm. "Yeah. He had to go in for a mandatory biopsy today, to make sure that his heart wasn't rejected. - he has to do that every three months. They also have to do some blood work and stuff. He should be done soon; he's been there since this seven this morning."

David reached over and placed a hand on Blaine's shoulder. "Blaine, it's only eleven. Give the procedure some time, okay?"

Blaine turned his head to look at the clock. "It's only eleven? Ugh," he said, letting his head hang down. "I could have sworn it was later. It feels like it's two in the afternoon."

"Maybe focusing on your homework instead of staring at your phone will help make the time pass by faster?" David suggested, pulling Blaine's math book towards him and placing it on top of his phone.

Blaine smacked the book away. "No, what if he calls me?"

"Blaine, biopsies take a while, so Kurt is probably not going to call you until later. Now stop moping and come join the group to study," Wes stated firmly from across the room. "You have a choice of math or history. Choose, or I will choose for you."

"Demanding," Blaine said, but he picked up his history book and opened it to the chapter. "I can't believe that we got homework on the first day."

"Welcome to the life of a senior in high school. Feast in its fabulousness," Wes said stiffly.

"I don't believe that fabulousness is an actual word, Wes. You're slipping," Thad said from over in the corner.

"Oh god," Jeff said from where he was sitting on the piano bench. "Wes is slipping, you guys."

"That's like, _never _happened before!" exclaimed Trent, who had put his book in his lap and slapped his hands to his cheeks in mock horror. "Run for the hills!"

"Wes is totally a Russian spy, you guys! Our home has been taken over!"

"He's going to kill us all in our sleep sometime this year!"

"Or make us do step-hop-snap dance combinations for the rest of the performance season."

"Or, you know, just glare at us menacingly, like he's doing right now."

Wes _was _glaring at the Warblers menacingly, a rather large frown on his face. "When you guys all fail out of high school, I'm going to be laughing so hard. I'll come by the fast food restaurant that you end up working at and laugh in your face, then leave without ordering anything."

Blaine cleared his throat and attempted to stop laughing. "I'm sorry, Wes. It's just when you're really uptight you're also _really _fun to make fun of."

"Keep laughing, Anderson. Wait until I sic your boyfriend on you."

"That's not going to do much, since said boyfriend also thinks that when you're having uptight moments you're really fun to make fun of."

Blaine's head shot around to see Kurt standing in the entrance way to the commons area. "Hey," he called out happily, rushing over to give him a hug. "Hey," he said again, planting a quick kiss to Kurt's cheek. "How did the biopsy go?"

Kurt reached a hand up to rub at his neck, where a large bandage was placed. "It went fine, but let me tell you, having someone place a catheter into my neck, then stick a tube down it was really _not fun._" He let Blaine take his hand and was led to the couch. "But I can eat now, _finally_," he said, sitting down gracefully. "Do you have lunch time soon? I'm starving."

Blaine picked his phone up and checked the time. "Yeah, in about thirty minutes. Why?"

"I'm staying. I don't have to go back to school today, so I figured I'd hang out with you."

"Well," Blaine said, closing his history and math books and laying an arm around Kurt's shoulders.

"I'm not protesting at all to that."

Kurt glanced around at the rest of the Warblers. "Do you guys mind? I know that New Directions wouldn't allow this to happen if it was one of you visiting them…"

David shook his head. "No, we don't mind. It's not like we're actually getting ready for the competition season just yet, and plus. We haven't seen you in a while," he said, wandering over so that he was sitting on the other side of Blaine. "How've you been? The last time that we saw you, you were getting ready to go on vacation to Hawaii."

Kurt shrugged his shoulders. "I've been fine, actually. School started yesterday, and while I had to miss my second day for the biopsy, I've never been happier." He frowned suddenly. "Actually, I'd like to ask your opinion on something, Blaine," he said, turning slightly so that he could look his boyfriend in the eyes. "I was thinking about joining Glee club."

Blaine's eyes widened. "Really? Kurt, that would be great!"

"Really?"

"Yeah, totally!"

"You'd be okay with that?" Kurt asked, watching as the rest of the Warblers got up and left the room, leaving it to just the two of them. Kurt was grateful for that; he really liked the Warblers. They were nice and polite – all of them.

Blaine frowned. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Kurt let out a sigh. "Because then I'd be competition, and I was told all about Rachel and the Vocal Adrenaline lead singer Jesse St. James and the fiasco that was their romantic relationship and I don't want that to be us."

Blaine smiled at him, glad to see that Kurt was thinking about their relationship like that. "Don't you worry about that, okay? We'll be _just _fine," he said, leaning over to give Kurt a quick kiss.

Kurt hummed slightly into the kiss, then gave Blaine a huge smile as they pulled apart. "Are you still coming over for dinner this weekend?"

Blaine opened his mouth to say that, yes, he was, when he froze as he remembered something. "Oh, I can't," he said sadly. "My dad is having this huge company dinner type thing and I'm required to attend."

Kurt let out a small "oh," looking down at his lap, biting his lip. "Will you be okay there?"

Blaine shrugged, not really feeling like talking about his issues with his father at the moment. "Should be, I mean, what is he going to do?"

Kurt leaned his head against Blaine's shoulders. "You don't need to tense up, Blaine. It's just me."

Exhaling, Blaine brought his arms around Kurt and pulled him closer. "I know," he said softly. "I guess that I'm just trying to get used to _this_; being able to tell someone anything, you know?"

Kurt let out a small laugh and brought a hand up to his chest, over the clothes that were covering his surgery scar. "I know," he said before he tilted his head up and gave Blaine a soft and chaste kiss on his lips.

..

Blaine knew the story of how his dad married his mom. It had been at an Anderson open house, and Sarah, his mother, had been invited as a date by one of Gregory Anderson's best friends. Blaine's father danced once with her at the open house – then a few dates after the dance, and then a ring – and the rest was history. They did love each other, they really did, but they were both strong minded and strong willed; his father was all business, and his mother liked to relax and be lazy most of the time. They disagreed a lot when it came to politics and religious matters – what it all fell down to was that they'd married too fast and young, as many of Blaine's family members said.

_Maybe they were right, _Blaine thought as he tiptoed past his parents' bedroom, trying to not zero in on any of the words his parents were throwing at each other. One thing about his parents that he couldn't _stand _was that when they fought, it was _polite_. They never raised their voices to a yell, or screamed. When he'd mentioned it to Kurt, he'd shrugged and said, "Maybe they argue naked?" which had caused Blaine to spit out his drink.

"I think it's a good thing to do," Kurt had continued. "Because you won't be able to do much fighting when the person you love is nude in front of you. When we have our first fight, we need to do it naked, deal?"

Blaine had decided to hold him to that deal.

He never really liked to be home most of the time, choosing to stay at Dalton (during the school year) or at Kurt's until at least six before heading home. This time, though, he'd been roped in to helping set up their house for the next open house that his family was throwing. Somehow, though, he'd managed to sneak away and see Kurt for a while.

"Blaine, I know you're trying to sneak past us," his mother's voice suddenly called out and Blaine froze mid step as the door to his parent's room swung open. His dad was frowning at him, and his mom had her arms folded, but Blaine could see that she was forcing down a small smile. "You snuck out to see Kurt, didn't you?" she asked, and Blaine knew that she knew; he nodded.

His father's frown deepened.

A soft smile appeared on his mom's face. "When am I going to meet him, Blaine?" she asked, completely ignoring the way that his father's posture became even stiffer than it had originally been.

"Sarah, _dear. _We've talked about this," his dad said, his tone rough and hard.

"Greg, _darling, _I just wanted to ask him about his love life," his mom replied, his tone light and cheery, but her facial expression hard as she turned her gaze back onto Greg.

Blaine bit his lip. "I'm just… I'm just going to go to my room," he said quietly as his parents glared at each other. He left before either of them could object.

He _hated _it when they used their disagreements about him to fuel their arguments. Sometimes he wondered if his sexuality would have really been such a big problem in his house if it wasn't used to only start fights, that maybe neither of them would care as much as they did if they weren't constantly trying to use those words, "he's _gay_", to fight with each other.

"I really don't think my dad hates gays, as much as he acts like he does, just like how I don't think that my mom really cares about my _love life _as much as she tries to say she does. I think… I think they're using _me _as an excuse to fight with each other," he told Kurt later that night as he sat on the middle of his bed, Roxy Music playing softly in the background.

_"Honey, I…"_ Kurt drew off and Blaine knew it was because Kurt didn't know what to say either. _"If they fight so much, then why are they still together?"_

Blaine let out a sigh. "It's all about the image in my neighborhood; I mean, I think that they maybe love each other, but who knows? Right now they have to have the _perfect marriage_, and a divorce would only ruin their reputation, as well as the family business." Blaine lied down and stretched out on his bed. "And I don't think they want to go through all of that trouble."

_"I wish that I was there with you so that I could hug you. You sound like you really need a hug,"_ Kurt said softly, and Blaine fell in love all over again.

"Me too, Kurt."

_Me too._

Inhaling, Blaine rolled over onto his stomach. "So tell me, what are your plans for this weekend?"

He could practically see Kurt shrug. _"Nothing really, because you said you had that open house thing, why?"_

Blaine grinned, thinking back to Kurt's number 11 on his bucket list.

_Number 11: attend a fancy dinner party. Those have to be somewhat fun, right?_

"What would you say to being my date to the annual Anderson Open House party this weekend?"

..

Kurt hadn't really mentioned the idea of joining Glee club to anyone other than Blaine. The auditions were going to be held all throughout the first two weeks of school but so far, though, no one had joined – or even signed up. Every day he walked past the sign up board to see people signing up for the Cheerios, football, hockey, and even the Medieval Survival club (which, _what the hell _is _that_?). It really confused him; what was _so _bad about being in Glee club?

And so, on the third day of the week, he decided to make a decision.

Frowning, he shouldered his bag and then began to make his way to the choir room. Every original Glee club member was already in there, sitting on the chairs and talking animatedly with each other.

Rachel was sitting next to an open seat, and when she caught sight of him she motioned at it; he smiled at her as he crossed the room to sit down in the chair. Rachel leaned over and gave him a quick hug, then immediately turned back to Mercedes, with whom she was trying to get to tell her who her mystery man was (which Kurt had figured out four days into the summer. Really, she and Sam were _not _that discreet). He was silently laughing along with Mercedes at Rachel's frustration when Mr. Schue walked in.

"Hello everyone, and welcome to the first official Glee club meeting of the year." He paused and glanced over them fondly, then let his gaze fall on Kurt. "Especially you, Kurt. It's good to see you back in this room with us." He grinned. "Well, I think this is the year, everyone. "I think that this year, we're going to take Nationals, the year that we'll win it all."

True to Glee club enthusiasm, a loud cheer broke out in the room, which only stopped once Mr. Schue held both of his hands up. "Now, Nationals are in LA this year, and while I know you guys are probably getting excited, we _still _need to address the fact that we are in need of new members."

Mercedes let out a small sigh. "When are you gonna get it, Mr. Schue? No one wants to join Glee club."

"Not even the freshmen are interested," Finn mentioned.

"That's because the football team promised any new potential Glee club members daily slushie facials for at least a month," Rachel said as she crossed her legs and picked at the unicorn on her shirt. 'It's just going to be us again, with Kurt giving us outfits."

Kurt bit his lip, and before he even knew what he was doing, his hands was moving up into the air.

"Yes, Kurt?" Mr. Schue asked.

"I… uh, actually… I was going to ask if I could possibly audition." He stiffened as everyone's head swung to face his direction; he dropped his hand back to his lap. "I can't audition until I can take this bandage off," he said, gesturing to the bandage on his neck from his biopsy the previous day. "But I'd like to, if that's okay?"

Tina was the first one to break the silence. "Kurt, that would be great! That means we'd have thirteen members!"

"Kurt," Mercedes called out. "Why didn't you tell me about this idea?" she asked, attempting to sound upset; her face betrayed her though.

Kurt shrugged his shoulders. "Because I literally just decided to join. I'd been talking about it with

Blaine; he wants me to join and said I have a good voice, so - "

"Wait a second," Rachel suddenly blurted out. "Blaine, as in your _boyfriend_, Blaine? As in _lead vocalist of the Warblers, _Blaine? Blaine Mathew Anderson?"

Kurt blinked. "How did you learn his middle name?"

"That doesn't matter," Rachel said with a wave of her hand. "But you said _Blaine _talked you into this? _Blaine Anderson_?"

"No, the appliance," Kurt said, rolling his eyes. "Yes, Rachel, _that_ Blaine Anderson."

Rachel folded her arms. "He's just doing that – telling you to join, that is – so that the Warblers can have someone inside of the enemy lines to gather intel."

Kurt stared at her. "I… wow," he said. "You guys were really not lying when you said she had issues with people spying, huh?"

A collective, "nope, not lying," went around the room.

"Hey!" Rachel called out, sounding offended. "I'm just saying that there is a very high chance that the reason Blaine is with you is so that the Warblers can get our set list for Sectionals!"

Santana let out a yawn. "That's crazy, short stack."

Brittany frowned. "Rachel is a pancake stack now?"

Kurt was staring at Rachel with wide eyes. "So you're saying that my relationship of seven months with someone I love – and who loves me back, by the way – is a plot so that they can get a rival Glee club's set list for a performance… Did I get that right?"

Rachel nodded. "See? Now you're starting to understand things."

"Wow, Finn, your girlfriend is _crazy_," he called out, catching his brother's attention.

Finn shrugged. "Sometimes, yeah."

"_Finn!_"

"Loud too," Kurt muttered underneath his breath.

"_HEY!"_

_.._

"_So, Rachel thinks that the only reason you're dating me is so that you can steal the New Directions set list for Sectionals."_

Blaine blinked, stopping his activity of putting a table cloth on one of the tables for the open house.

"Well, hello to you too. Also, she thinks _what_?"

"_I know, right?"_

"How did she ever figure out my diabolical plan? I thought I'd kept it a complete top secret from everyone! Everything is _ruined_!"

Kurt let out a laugh, and Blaine had to stop moving and just soak it in. He absolutely loved Kurt's laugh. "_Laugh it up, Anderson, because if she thinks she's right and I make it into New Directions, she said she'd ban me from speaking to you until Sectionals is over._"

Blaine blinked again. "Funny thing is she can't really do that."

"_I think she'd find a way to do it. She _is _Rachel_."

"That is true, that is true," Blaine muttered, sitting down on the edge of the nearest table; a woman behind him let out a hiss, gesturing for him to get off of the table. _Sorry, sorry,_ he mouthed to her as he quickly moved from the room. "So, I was thinking, it's going to be a completely clear night tonight, a rather warm one, too. Would you like to go stargazing with me?"

Kurt let out a small exhale. "_Stargazing? Tonight? What gave you the idea to do that?_"

Blaine shrugged as he moved out of the building and headed towards his home. "Just… it was just an idea. You know, something fun to do because we haven't really seen each other a lot lately."

"_I saw you yesterday, Blaine._"

"I know. I just miss you."

Kurt let out a sigh, and Blaine could see his chest moving in his own mind if he thought about it hard enough. "_I miss you too, you know… But not tonight. I'm planning on spending the time with my dad in the shop today; he has a car that he needs help with._"

"Okay, well then… I want to see you before Saturday, though. That's when the formal dinner is."

"_You call me tomorrow morning when you wake up and we'll work something out, okay?_"

"Deal."

"_I love you,_" Kurt said softly.

"I love you too, Kurt."

..

Unfortunately for Blaine, he'd stayed up too late studying for a test he had the next morning, and when he woke up he realized that he only had half an hour to get ready for school. He hurried to get dressed and pack everything up, forgetting breakfast and speeding outside to his car. He sent a quick text to Kurt, telling him he'd call him at lunch so they could figure something out and then turned his phone on silent.

He was halfway through his exam on World War II (and feeling rather confident that he would ace the test) when his phone buzzed in his pocket. He glanced up at the teacher, who was busy reading a book on her desk, then slipped his phone out and read the text.

**From Kurt (9:02):**_ So… I was thinking… We should have sex._

Needless to say, Blaine Anderson _didn't _pass his World War II test.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Author's notes:<strong>_I just have to say, guys - WOW. I'm really glad that you guys are liking this story so far!

Well, as you can guess by the conversation at the end of this chapter what the boys will be talking about next chapter, huh, ha ha! Originally, I wasn't going to update this until later, but after tonight's episode, I really needed some fluff to distract myself. BUT, after this chapter, things really start going head on - there's fluff ahead (a whole universe full of fluff), some angst (because, yeah. Just because), and also siblings.

(for those who remember, Blaine had an older brother named Wendell in _The Light At The End_, but now since Blaine has an actual brother in canon, Wendell's name will be changed to Cooper. I hope that it doesn't mess anything up for you guys)

It'd be so kind of you to let me know what you thought of this chapter.

I hope you guys have a pleasant hiatus, and I'll hopefully see you guys soon!

Love,

UO


	3. Chapter 3

_**Disclaimer:**_ I do not own Glee

**WARNINGS: **Spoiler character for Glee episode 3.15.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Chapter three<strong>_

* * *

><p>"Kurt Hummel," Blaine hissed into his phone as he crouched down in the corner of the Warbler's practicing room, his bag pressed up against his chest as he clutched it with his left hand. "You can't just <em>text<em> me that while I'm in school and not expect it to have consequences!"

"_I'm sorry, I really am, I... I don't know, I was just _thinking_ about it and - _"

Blaine let out a stressed stream of air. "Why were you thinking about it?"

"_I'm taking a Health class late this year, and we were talking about sex and it just... I was just wondering why we haven't done it yet._"

Blaine slid down the wall further, planting his butt on the ground as he took in Kurt's words. "We had a talk about it over the summer, though. You weren't ready, I wasn't ready, and so we decided that we would talk about it when we both were, but until then - "

"_And what if I _am_ ready? What if I am ready to give you, to share with you, the last part of me?_"

Blaine's brain short circuited.

"..._Blaine? Are you still there?_"

Blaine shook his head, then nodded. Then slapped himself because Kurt couldn't see the nod. "Yes, I'm still here," he said, exhaling loudly.

"_I'm sorry if that was too forward, but I just... I'm ready, I know that I'm ready. I just figured I'd better be honest and let you know. I mean, if you're not ready, then that's fine and _- "

"Kurt," Blaine said quickly and rather breathlessly. Kurt stopped rambling, and Blaine could picture him blinking, those eyelashes moving down and brushing against the skin on Kurt's cheekbones. _Oh my god..._ "Kurt, honey, I am _so_ ready."

There was a small squeak on the other end of the line. "_Really? You're not just saying that? I mean - _"

"Okay, I'm about to get _embarrassingly_ honest here, okay? You happen to be the _best_ masturbation material."

"_Blaine!_"

"What? Not like that's all you're good for, because you're good for so much more and - "

"_You're not really helping yourself here, Blaine._"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I was just trying to say that I want you, Kurt. You have no _idea_ how much I want you."

Kurt was silent for a moment on the other line, and then Blaine heard his breath hitch. "_R-really?_"

Blaine nodded his head frantically as he spoke. "_Yes_. So much."

Kurt exhaled and Blaine closed his eyes, picturing Kurt's chest moving as he breathed; pictured his new heart beating, allowing him to breathe. "_Then... then the next time you and I meet up, preferably before the dinner this weekend... We should talk about this, about how we want to go forward with this, okay?_ _Or... after our date sometime, so the the whole date isn't awkward?_"

"Okay, okay, we can – we can do that."

"_Oh, the bell just rang. Can you call me after you get out of Warbler's practice?_"

"Of course I will."

"_I love you, and I'll talk to you later._"

"I love you too, bye."

He hung up, and then placed his phone into his pocket, thinking over the conversation he'd just had. He and Kurt were going to talk about having sex. Standing up, Blaine blinked, and then allowed a shaky smile to appear on his face. He and _Kurt_ were going to have a conversation about them _having sex_.

_Oh my GOD!_

Blaine was a respectable boyfriend, as he'd often been told by his friends, their girlfriends, and Kurt's father. He was polite, gentlemanly, and it was obvious to everyone that he loved Kurt deeply. And when he'd been asked point blank by David if he and Kurt'd had sex, he'd said no, because they were waiting until they were both ready and the time felt right; David's girlfriend had leaned over and said that she wished all boyfriends were like him, all the while shooting David a rather dark glare.

It was just that Blaine didn't want to do anything that would ruin his relationship with Kurt. Kurt meant too much to him to ruin anything they had by pushing for sex.

But being a gentleman didn't stop his mind from wandering, from imagining what it'd be like to push Kurt against his bed, to run his hands over Kurt's skin, to taste, to feel; he'd always imagined what it'd be like for him to see Kurt naked, what it'd be like to see Kurt's cock, erect and wanting release. What it'd be like to be inside of Kurt, or for Kurt to be inside him -

Blaine's right hand had been getting used a lot lately.

With a small sigh of happiness, Blaine shouldered his messenger bag and left the practice room, heading towards his next class, thinking about Kurt. _Kurt, Kurt, Kurt, Kurt, Ku-_

"Blaine?"

Blaine paused mid-step, his hand tightening on the strap of his bag. He blinked, turning around to see who had called his name. "Oh my..."

The man smiled at him, taking his top hat off as he walked closer. "Hey, little brother, how are you doing?"

Blaine stared at him. "No way, Cooper?"

Cooper Anderson gave him a wild grin, and then reached forward to pull Blaine into a rather rough hug. "Blaine, how are you doing?"

Blaine blinked and then allowed a large grin to appear on his face as he wrapped his arms around his older brother. "What are you doing here?"

Cooper pulled away and placed both hands on Blaine's shoulders, his eyebrows furrowing. "You're still as short as ever," he said seriously, which made Blaine glare at him. "Okay, but in all seriousness, I'm here because of the dinner this weekend, and also because..." He drew off, and then exhaled. "Dad called me."

Blaine's face fell. "...oh."

Cooper nodded. "He told me that you have a _boyfriend_."

Blaine bit his lip and took a small step back. "Yes... I do. We've been together for quite a while."

"Blaine, I..." Cooper took his elbow and pulled him into the nearest room, which was, thankfully, an empty classroom. "You know that dad called me here, to bring Alisa and show you what _'true happiness'_ is but..."

Cooper drew off and Blaine let out a sigh.

"But are you happy? Right now?"

Blaine's head shot back up and he stared at his older brother. "What?"

"Are you happy, with your boyfriend?"

A small smile broke out on Blaine's face and his head dropped back down as he chuckled. "I am _so_ happy, you have no idea." He looked back up at his brother when he felt a hand drop down to his shoulder.

"Why don't I check you out of school, and then you can tell me all about him over lunch, okay?"

Blaine grinned. "Okay."

Cooper ended up checking him out of school early and taking him to the little cafe that they used to go to before Cooper moved out of the house to go to college. "So," he said as he settled himself down in the booth, taking a sip of his water. "Tell me about this boyfriend of yours."

That same small smile appeared on his face, and his fingers played with his glass of water as he started to talk. "His name is Kurt Hummel, and I first met him in a cemetery."

"Well, that's charming."

"Shut up, Coop," he said, not able to keep the smile off of his face. "Okay, well, we met at a cemetery, because he'd fallen asleep at his mother's grave. It was rather cold out, so I figured that I should wake him up so he wouldn't get sick; we started talking, and since Dad was taking me back to Lima later that week and I'd have nothing to do, I asked Kurt if he'd show me around. He said yes, we exchanged numbers, and we just... kept talking to each other after that.

"Our friendship just... _took off, _you know? It was like we were meant to be close from the very beginning; I trusted him with everything, he was fun to hang out with, to talk to and I just... He was so easy to fall in love with, Coop."

Cooper held up a hand to stop Blaine from talking. "Wait, you're _in love _with him?"

Blaine nodded. "So, _so_ in love with him, Cooper. He makes everything worth it, and he lights up my life in the best way. I can't imagine going a day without speaking to him, and picturing the rest of my life? All I see for sure is that he's in all of it."

"Wow," Cooper said, leaning back against the booth, his eyes wide. "You are really in love with him..."

"Yes."

Cooper leaned forward again, giving Blaine a long, hard look. "How come I didn't hear about him until Dad called me, then? You'd think the first person you'd call would be your big brother."

Blaine inhaled sharply and then his head fell. Cooper pulled back a bit.

"I'm guessing it wasn't an easy thing, getting together, then huh?"

Blaine took a shaky breath, and Cooper was startled to see that his little brother was _crying_.

"Blaine?"

"U-um, I'm fine, Cooper. I'm fine, it was just... it's still a rather sore topic, you know?"

"Blaine, I'm afraid I'm not following."

"Um... Kurt became my best friend incredibly quickly, like... so fast it felt like I'd never not had him in my life. He'd been sort of like that missing puzzle piece that I'd been looking for forever, and once he was there, I never wanted to let him go. And then.. one day he sent me this... this _text message _out of the blue and it pretty much messed up my world for a while. I-I still have it," he said, pulling his phone out, thumbing through his texts. "No matter how much I wanted to delete it, I couldn't and I just... here," he stated, handing the phone over to Cooper.

Cooper took it, and then glanced down at the text message.

_**From Kurt (6:37): **__I have CHF. My heart is giving out and I'm dying._

Cooper stared at the text message. "Oh... So he - "

Blaine reached over and took his phone back, his thumb tracing the outline of the phone, sighing. "I didn't know how to take it, and our relationship really took a hit; then a while later, I got a call from his step-brother, who told me that Kurt's heart had stopped and that he was in the hospital – I went to visit him and everything fixed itself and - "

"And you got together?"

Blaine shook his head. "No. No, it took us a while. Um..." he fiddled with the glass in his hands and worried on his lip. "I was sort of an idiot, actually. Uh, do you remember Jeremiah?"

Cooper nodded, then furrowed his eyebrows. "What does he have to do with this, though?"

"He was the first person I told when I figured out I was in love with Kurt, and he sort of told me that he'd help me tell Kurt how I felt. However, I guess I made it look like I had a crush on _Jeremiah_ instead of Kurt when I was trying to drop a few hints. I, as usual, failed with being sneaky, and on the day I was going to confess to Kurt, Kurt arrived to the house early and Jeremiah was there."

"Oh, so he assumed that...?"

"That Jeremiah and I were either dating or that I was going to tell him I liked Jeremiah." Blaine let out a sigh and ran a hand over his hair. "We sort of stopped talking a little bit after that, and during that time he just kept getting _worse and worse_ and after he showed up to Regionals and left halfway through because he was so sick, I knew that I had to tell him. So I met up with him in a park that we'd decided was our little place, and he told me that he was so _scared_ and I just held him and told him that I loved him and everything would be okay in the end as he cried. And then he pulled away and kissed me and everything fit together after that."

Cooper let out a low whistle. "That is some story, Blaine."

Blaine shrugged his shoulders. "I know that I should have called you to let you know, but for that little while I was just so happy being with him, I wanted to keep myself in that little bubble, and if I'd called you I would have had to tell you about his heart and I didn't want to think about that during those times."

Cooper opened his mouth, hesitating to ask. Eventually, he just decided to go for it. "And now? Is he still in need of a transplant or?"

He'd been expecting for Blaine to get sad again, for him to mention something about Kurt getting worse or staying the same; he was most definitely not expecting a large smile to appear on Blaine's face and for Blaine to shake his head energetically. "No, Coop, he _doesn't_. He, uh, he got really bad there, so bad that his dad had started planning his funeral and getting everything ready, but one night his pager went off and he got his heart and, _Coop_, he has a new heart and he's going to _live_," Blaine finished, bringing a hand up to his mouth, tears forming in his eyes. "I just... _god_, Cooper, I haven't actually said it out loud and - "

"I think I understand," Cooper said, glancing up as their waitress began to bring their food to them. "I want to meet him soon," he finished, saying a quick 'thank you' to the waitress as she placed his food on the table in front of him. "Would you be okay with that?"

Blaine nodded, taking a bite of his hamburger. "I'd be more than okay with that. I think I want you to meet him, too."

"That's good."

They ate together in silence, and then Blaine decided to voice what was on his mind. "Uh, Coop? I want to invite Kurt to the dinner on Saturday, and..."

Cooper's head shot up and he stared at Blaine, giving him a hard look that had Blaine shifting in his seat. "I don't think that's such a good idea, Blaine."

Blaine frowned. "Why not? I want to invite him because on Kurt's bucket list he'd had 'attend a fancy dinner party', or something along those lines, and I want to give it to him."

"You're trying to give him his bucket list, _jesus_, Blaine!"

Blaine shot up in his seat, sitting completely straight as he stared at his older brother. "And what's wrong with that? I want to give it to him, so I will; and that's not the point, _Cooper_. What's wrong with me inviting him to the dinner party?"

Cooper bit his lip, and Blaine let out a sigh.

"Dad's invited the Johnson's over, hasn't he?"

The Johnson family were very close to the Anderson's, and by 'very close' Blaine meant they tolerated each other, seeing as both of them were family owned law firms who happened to do a lot of business with each other. The Johnson's weren't usually invited to dinner parties, but when they were, Blaine knew it was because his father was planning something, and Blaine always knew what it was; the Johnson's had a daughter, around Blaine's age, and at one point in time, Blaine had caught his father and Mr. Johnson wondering if they could plan an arranged marriage between the two - _after _Blaine had come out of the closet.

Thankfully, Blaine's mother had stepped in, stopping all thoughts of an arranged marriage in its tracks. However, his father hadn't stopped trying to push Amanda (the daughter) on Blaine at every chance that he could get. _Unless_...

"I mean," Cooper was saying as he slowly chewed on his food. "I guess it might not be a bad idea after all to have Kurt be a part of the dinner... It would probably get the Johnson's off your back, and maybe dad for a while."

"You think?"

Cooper shrugged. "I'm not sure, but I'm sure not going to do what he expects me to do."

Blaine raised an eyebrow? "And that would be?"

"To _encourage_ you to make the 'right' choice and date Amanda. I'm going to _encourage_ you to sneak away with Kurt and do whatever the hell you guys have done so far."

Blaine's face burned slightly and he shifted on the seat. "We, uh... We actually haven't - "

Cooper grinned. "So, my little brother is still - "

"_Hungry_," Blaine hissed out as he reached over and shoved a fry into his brother's mouth. "He's still _hungry_."

..

Since he'd been checked out of school, he'd ended up being forced to help finish set up the dining area for the dinner party, his father giving both him and Cooper disappointed looks when they stumbled into building the Anderson's had rented for the weekend, both of them laughing over a story Blaine had been telling about Kurt and his first ever sunburn.

"I'd taken him out running," Blaine had been saying, recalling the memory with fondness. "It had been the first time he'd been running in a few years, and he just – took off, like he was flying, and honestly? I'd never seen him so free."

Cooper had clapped on the shoulder, grinning like he'd grinned as a child, when they were both burden free of their family. But, their father had pulled them into helping, which had ceased all fun activities; Blaine had been able to get away, though, pretending to have to use the restroom so that he could quickly figure out what his plans with Kurt were:

_**From Blaine (2:13):**_ _So, what are out plans to meet up, then? I'd call, but I got roped into helping finish setting up for the dinner._

_**From Kurt: (2:14): **I can meet tomorrow and spend the entire day with you :)_

_**From Blaine: (2:16): **I'll pick you up then. Love you._

_**From Kurt: (2:16): **I love you too. : *_

And then, Blaine had been brought back to work,

It was incredibly boring work, with him just placing certain objects on the tables, or helping set up chairs; the movements were repetitive, so he allowed his mind to wander, thinking back to the summer, when he could see Kurt every day, spend the night at the Hummel's house.

He remembered when he first fell asleep in Kurt's bed, two days before they'd been informed that Kurt had a heart. Blaine had been the one to carry him up to his room that night, and instead of just placing Kurt in the bed, he'd laid down beside his boyfriend, pressing a quick kiss to Kurt's head. Kurt had remained asleep, even as Blaine snuggled up close to him, just feeling him and holding him and listening to him breathe.

_Who knows how much longer I'll..._

He'd had to stop that thought, because _no._ Kurt would get a heart, he was sure.

He'd fallen asleep there, one of his hands pressed up on Kurt's chest, feeling his heart beat, his head placed as close to Kurt's as he could, hearing him inhale and exhale when he needed. It had been one of the best sleeps he'd ever had, and waking up next to Kurt had been... something that Blaine couldn't' describe.

Sleeping with Kurt hadn't happened since the party over the summer, and Blaine found that he missed it, feeling Kurt's warm body next to his, hearing his heart beat and him breathing. He just missed his boyfriend.

_I'm getting all sad now..._

"Blaine!"

Blaine let out a blink, and then turned around and his mouth dropped open, his arms opening up just in time to catch the flying ball of Kurt Hummel that was sent soaring at him. "_Oof_," he let out as he was forced to take a few steps back to keep his balance. "H-hi, love," he said as he put Kurt down on the ground. Kurt leaned forward and placed a kiss on his mouth before he could say anything else and then moved away. "What are you doing here?"

Kurt grinned. "I know that you said we'd meet tomorrow, but I have a really big favor to ask of you and I wanted to ask it in person."

Blaine nodded. "Sure, sure, anything."

Kurt let out a relieved sigh. "I'm auditioning for New Directions tomorrow, and I was hoping that you'd be able to be there to hear me sing."

Blaine blinked again, the nodded repeatedly, leaning forward to press a kiss to Kurt's forehead. "Yes, yes, _absolutely_."

"Good," Kurt said as he wrapped his arms around Blaine's shoulders, Blaine's hands immediately going to his waist. "That just makes my audition even better."

Blaine twirled them around once, and then he leaned in and pressed their foreheads together. "Are you busy right now?"

Kurt shook his head, sliding his right hand down Blaine's arm to lace their fingers together. "No. I got out of having to do anything today at home, and I'm not auditioning for Glee until tomorrow, so I am _all yours_ for the rest of the day." He then nodded towards the tables. "What about you?"

Blaine gave him a quick peck on the lips and tightened his grip on Kurt's fingers a tad. "They'll be okay without me. There's someone that I want you to meet."

Kurt raised an eyebrow as Blaine began to pull him towards another room. "Oh? Am I finally going to meet your boyfriend?"

Blaine let out a laugh. "No, no, you're not meeting him just yet. But, uh... Hey, Cooper!" he called out, signaling for his brother to come over. "Get over here!"

Kurt paused. "Blaine, is that...?"

"My brother? Yeah, it is."

"...I think that I really like the Anderson genes."

Blaine frowned at him. "Oi."

Kurt pressed a kiss to his cheek, then another one on the corner of Blaine's eyebrow. "Aw, I still think you're the best Anderson of all, though. After all," he said, his voice moving to his deeper register. "_You're_ the one that I'm going to lose my virginity to."

Blaine would have said something back, but all he could do was allow his jaw to drop open, just in time for Cooper to stop in front of them.

"Blaine? You called me over?"

Blaine grinned up at him, then pushed Kurt slightly forward towards his brother. "Cooper? I'd like you to meet Kurt Hummel, my boyfriend. Kurt? This is my brother, Cooper Anderson."

Kurt glanced at Blaine out of the side of his eye, then up to Cooper before he held out his hand. "Hello," he said politely. "It's nice to meet you; Blaine's told me a lot."

Cooper took Kurt's hand, then grinned widely and Kurt could suddenly see the resemblance. "It's nice to meet you as well, Kurt. Let's drop the formalities right now, okay?"

Kurt barely had time to nod before he was being yanked into a hug, Cooper's arms closing around him tightly, and he could hear Blaine laughing in the background. "Uh..." he stated, before slowly allowing his arms to come around Cooper's hack. "I take it you're like Blaine and are sort of touchy feely?"

Cooper pulled away from the hug, his smile softened somewhat. "Only towards those who make my brother as happy as you've made him."

Kurt flushed slightly, turning his head to look back at Blaine, who was even more red than him. He felt Cooper take his arm firmly and his head swirled around to stare at him. "Yes?"

"I'd like to talk to you alone, if that's okay?"

Kurt nodded, his arm being let go as Cooper led them both over to a small round table, quite a ways away from Blaine. "Um... is there something wrong, or?"

"No, no, not at all, um.. I honestly just wanted to talk to you alone to thank you; I know that I'll have plenty of time to get to know you better, but really - " Cooper's face softened, and his gaze traveled over to his brother, who was sneaking some food from the only table in the room that was set up and fully equipped with food. "I have, honestly, never seen him so happy. And that's all thanks to you."

Kurt bit his lip. "I-it's probably not just because of me, you know; he's the lead singer of the Warblers, and he's applying to some really great schools for college, like Columbia and - "

"Schools in New York, right? Where you're planning on going?"

Kurt shrugged, but he knew it was true. "Honestly I hadn't thought about it much yet, because I didn't really think I'd ever get there – um..." The conversation was slowly becoming more awkward, and he shifted on his feet and looked over at his boyfriend, who was now getting scolded by the caterer for stealing food; he let out a laugh, shaking his head. "He needs to stop doing that."

"Oh, I know. He's been doing stuff like that ever since he was young, only he got away with it because 'oooh, just look at how _cute_ he is'," Cooper said in a high voice, rolling his eyes as the caterer seemed to be won over by Blaine. "Ugh," he said, mock disgust in his voice. "It's those damn eyes."

"They do get him a lot of stuff – free stuff. He mostly gives what he gets to me, so who am I to complain?"

Cooper tilted his head to the side. "That is true... Hey!" he exclaimed, nudging Kurt's shoulder as Blaine hurried over to them. "I have _so_ many embarrassing stories to tell you about your boyfriend."

Kurt raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Looks like we have a get together sometime in the near future."

"What's that?" Blaine asked, taking a sandwich out of his pocket and handing it over to Kurt. "I thought you might be hungry," he whispered, glancing over his shoulder at the caterer; she caught his gaze and he gave her a beaming smile, to which she grinned at and turned around to yell at a waiter. "So," he continued, turning back to the two of them and sliding his arm around Kurt's waist. "What were you two saying?"

"We were just planning a day to meet up so that I can tell him _all_ of the embarrassing childhood stories about you," Cooper said as he examined his fingers.

Blaine's mouth fell open; he turned to Kurt, who shrugged his shoulders, eyes wide, and then took a bite of his sandwich and began to head out of the room. "Bye Cooper!" he called out as he went.

Blaine's eyes were wide as he stared after his boyfriend; then Kurt's right hand appeared behind his back, the fingers wagging in a message. Blaine took off after him, taking Kurt's hand in his once he caught up, excused falling from his lips. "No, you don't want to hang out with Cooper at all, Kurt, he lies about a a lot of things and – and, _Kurt_, you're not really going to, uh – BYE COOPER!" He yelled out before they left.

Cooper had a feeling that he would _really, really_ like Kurt Hummel.

..

Kurt Hummel was completely and utterly _nervous_.

He'd never had an official audition, never had to sing a song that would determine if he would get into a club, and the reassurance that almost everyone got into Glee club really hadn't helped at all. Blaine's hugs and kisses and help hadn't done the job either.

_What if I'm horrible?_

_What if they hate my voice?_

_What if..._

So, he settled himself on the stage and closed his eyes, doing his breathing exercises to calm his mind down and to slow down his heart beat. The entirety of New Directions, as well as Blaine, were sitting behind him in the auditorium, which just made Kurt even more nervous, because usually auditions were held in the choir room. However, Rachel had said they should use the auditorium instead.

"The acoustics are better for your singing, Kurt," she'd said with a beaming smile.

And so he had relented to performing in the auditorium.

_Well, it's now or never... _

Taking a deep breath, he exhaled, then turned around and faced the group.

"I, uh... Okay, so I've never really performed in front of anyone, other than Blaine, of course," he said, nodding his head in the direction of his boyfriend, who gave him a wide smile; Rachel sent him a glare out of the corner of her eye, and Blaine shifted awkwardly in his seat. Kurt cleared his throat. "Alright, so I just... go whenever, right?" he asked Mr. Schuester.

Mr. Schue nodded. "Whenever you're comfortable enough, Kurt."

"Okay, okay..."

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes for a moment, then thought back to what he'd been thinking and feeling about when he'd picked his song. A smile appeared on his face, and then he let out a small laugh, soft enough that only he could hear it. _Alright,_ he said, signaling the band to begin. _Let's do this_.

_And I feel,  
>All the faint morning light,<br>Filled with hope 'cause you're here in my life,  
>And we've gone,<br>From the edge of our souls,  
>Made it back to a place we call home.<em>

_You, see me through,  
>I was alone in the dark and the fear was my truth.<em>

_Yeah, all the things that you are,  
>Beautifully broken, alive in my heart,<br>And know that you are everything,  
>Let your heart sing and tonight, we light up the stars,<br>All that you are._

Kurt remembered not really thinking he was going to survive to see his senior year of high school, not living to see anything crossed off of his Bucket List, and most definitely not surviving long enough to fall in love with someone as amazing as Blaine Anderson. He'd lived each day, wondering if that day was going to be his last day; his last to see his dad, to learn, to eat food, to watch TV, to see the sun and hear everything that was living around him.

_I feel wrong,  
>I'm so human and flawed,<br>I break down even though I'm still strong,  
>And time, will make fools of us all,<br>Builds us up, and then laughs when we fall._

_You, pull me through,  
>When I'm alone in the dark and the fear was my truth.<em>

_Yeah, all the things that you are,  
>Beautifully broken, alive in my heart,<br>And know that you are everything,  
>Let your heart sing and tonight, we light up the stars,<br>All that you are._

Something changed in him, though, once he met Blaine, once he made the friendships that he had now. There was something more beautiful about the world, and even when he'd been dying, he could see the beauty in living until he couldn't anymore one again. And it was all thanks to Blaine, to his friends. His song was for his friends; for his Blaine.

_Yeah, all the things that you are,  
>Beautifully broken, alive in my heart,<br>And know that you are everything,  
>Let your heart sing and tonight, we light up the stars,<br>All that you are._

_Yeah, all the things that you are,  
>Beautifully broken, alive in my heart,<br>And know that you are everything,  
>Let your heart sing and tonight,<br>Let your heart sing and tonight, we light up the stars,  
>All that you are.<em>

_Oh I feel,  
>All the faint morning light,<br>Filled with hope 'cause you're here in my life._

When he was finished singing, he kept his eyes closed, just in case his singing hadn't been well received; but then there was mad clapping, and his eyes opened to see the entire Glee club and Blaine standing, all clapping as hard as they could. "Holy shit," Puck said loudly, and Kurt let out a laugh.

"Kurt! You're voice," Rachel said, her mouth open. "You're amazing!"

Blaine was moving to get up onto the stage, and once he had, he wrapped his arms around Kurt's waist, pulling him into a crushing hug. "That was _amazing,_" he breathed against Kurt's neck.

"You think so?"

"Absolutely."

"It was for you; for my friends too, but mostly for you," Kurt whispered as the Glee club all clambered onto the stage. "Thank you for helping me when I needed someone there; last year, I mean. And now."

He could tell that Blaine wanted to kiss him, for them to just be alone right now, but Kurt felt arms pulling him from Blaine, and then he was in the middle of a New Directions group hug, cries of, "Welcome to New Directions, Kurt!" were being tossed around. He could spend this time with them, though, because in an hour or so, it would just be him and Blaine, doing whatever Blaine had planned for their night together.

"Thank you, you guys. I think I'm going to enjoy it," he said to them once they'd let him go. Glancing up, he caught Blaine's gaze and couldn't help but give him a beaming smile. "You'd think I'd just won an Oscar," he mouthed.

Blaine shrugged, then held up his phone, pointing to the time. Kurt waved at him and Blaine blew him a kiss before he headed out of the auditorium. Kurt's phone vibrated, and once he'd been able to, he pulled it out of his pocket to check it.

_**Blaine (3:02): **I'll pick you up in two hours; enough time for you to get ready, and enough time for me to make sure that everything is perfect. I love you, and I'll see you soon. _

Kurt let out a happy sigh, and he was going to respond when another text came through.

_**Blaine (3:04): **You were amazing, and you looked so beautiful up on that stage. I am so lucky, and I am so in love with you, Kurt Hummel. _

Kurt would have been lying if he'd said he hadn't teared up a bit at his boyfriend's words. They told each other that they loved each other often, but sometimes it just _hit_ him, that the wonderful and amazing boy named Blaine Anderson was _in love with him, _that they were together, and that Kurt had months, weeks, _years_ to look forward to with him.

_**Kurt (3:07): **I'm in love with you too_.

Putting his phone back into his pocket, he tapped Mercedes on the shoulder and hugged her once she'd turned around. "I'm going to go home; I have a date to get ready for, so I'll call you later, alright?"

"Mmmhmm, you better," she teased as he exited the auditorium, a full smile on his face.

"Will do!" he called back as he waved goodbye to everyone. God _today was a good day!_

..

"Pizza for the night is okay, right?"

Kurt nodded as Blaine pulled out the two pizza boxes and placed them on the blanket next to him, then once Blaine was situated, he curled up into Blaine's side, running his hand over Blaine's stomach. "This is _really_ nice," he said, glancing up at the night sky, watching the stars shine. "Thank you so much for this."

Blaine placed an arm around his shoulder and offered him a bite of pizza. He held it at Kurt's mouth until his hand was pushed away slightly, then he took his own bite, placed the pizza back into the box and laid down beside his boyfriend. "You don't have to thank me, really. I just knew that you wanted to watch the stars; I'm just glad to see you smiling."

"I've been smiling a lot lately, huh?"

Blaine nudged Kurt's nose with his own slightly, pressing a quick kiss to his lips. "I like you smiling."

Kurt's smile grew for a moment, but then it fell, his face moving into a more serious look. "How did you know that I wanted to watch the stars? I don't think I've ever told you that."

Blaine nuzzled his nose into Kurt's cheek. "At Tina's party, when you tossed me your Bucket List, I sort of... read a little more than the one you'd told me to read." He paused, "Are you mad at me?"

Kurt shook his head. "No. I gave it to you, I should have known that you'd be curious to see what my dying self was dreaming about."

"Kurt..."

Kurt shook his head again. "No, it's really fine, Blaine; completely fine, in fact. If there was anyone who I'd wanted to know my dreams, it's you." Kurt pressed a kiss to his nose, then rested his head back down on the blanket. "Which ones were the interesting ones to you?"

Blaine's eyebrows furrowed. "On your list? I, for one, _really _liked number forty five."

Kurt thought about it, then went red. "Wait, the one about me skinny dipping?"

Blaine kissed him.

"_Blaine!_"

Blaine allowed Kurt to swat at him, laughing the entire time. "Okay, okay," he said once Kurt had calmed down and curled back up in his arms. "In all honesty, though? My favorite one is number 50."

"Oh... Me too. I really like that one as well."

_No. 50: live._

* * *

><p><em><strong>Author's notes: <strong>_Uuuuuummm... yeah, there's a _really_ high chance that this fic will get to the rating of M. Possibly.

Probably.

Most likely.

The scene with the M rating has been written, soooooooooo

Yeah.

But it's not for a while, and I'll make a system up so that if you aren't comfortable with reading an M rated scene you can skip it, and I'll warn at the top of the chapter as well as tell you how to skip it once that chapter is posted. Good?

Good.

Anyway, please do let me know what you thought! It really makes my day when people review.

You guys are all just so awesome and I want to squish all of you with hugs.

Love,

UO


	4. Chapter 4

_**Disclaimer: **_I do not own Glee

* * *

><p><em><strong>Chapter four<strong>_

* * *

><p>"I... I don't know about this one, Blaine, it just seems so... I mean, I look <em>too<em> dressed up, sort of like a snob, and I don't want to look like a snob for this; that'll just make everyone hate me, and it'll make your father hate me even more."

"Kurt..."

Kurt ignored him, then pulled another dress shirt out of his closet. "What about this one? It's purple, and you told me that your mom likes purple right?"

Blaine opened his mouth, planning on agreeing with Kurt, but then Kurt shook his head.

"No. No, this won't do. Purple means _royal_, and I can't go to a dinner like this wearing a color that means _royal_. It'll make me even _more_ of a snob, and it'll tell them that I think I'm better than them."

"Kurt, I - "

"A-and I can't wear that yellow shirt that you say looks really good on me, because yellow is _way _too cheerful and this isn't an event that you go to in bright colors, right? It'd just be rude and - "

"Kurt!" Blaine suddenly yelled, moving up from the bed to grasp Kurt's arms in a gentle grip. "Kurt, _breathe_." Blaine took in a slow breath, caught Kurt's gaze, then exhaled, nodding his head slowly.

Kurt nodded with him, finding a rhythm and inhaling deeply before letting it go. Leaning forward, he pressed his forehead against Blaine's, breathing along with his boyfriend. "Okay... okay, I feel better now."

"You calm?"

"Yeah, I am."

"I like the dark blue one the best. The one that you were wearing when I got here before you decided that it was too blue," Blaine said, his hand running up and down Kurt's back. Kurt nodded against his forehead, a grin slowly appearing on his face.

"I do look good in blue, huh?"

Blaine agreed, pressing a kiss to the side of Kurt's lips. "_Very_ good in blue," he said as Kurt pulled away and took his shirt off before he reached for the blue one. As he pulled the shirt on, Blaine allowed his eyes to roam over Kurt's back, taking in the muscles, the skin; his boyfriend was ridiculously attractive, and what Blaine would have given to pressed Kurt down into his mattress, pressing kiss after kiss down his spine and -

"Blaine?"

Blaine blinked, his head jerking back up to face Kurt, who had finished putting the blue shirt back on. "Are you ready to go now?"

"Oh yeah, let me just get my shoes back on..."

"Blaine."

"Yeah?"

"You already have your shoes on."

Blaine glanced down at his feet to see that he did, in fact, have his shoes on. "Oh."

Kurt let out a laugh as he moved forward to press a soft kiss to Blaine's lips. "Are you as nervous as I am?"

Blaine pulled back a bit to stare down at his boyfriend, thinking. Kurt was going to be meeting his family. His boyfriend would be meeting his parents, and by extension, their friends. He gulped, but nodded, because if Kurt knew that he was nervous as well, then they would be nervous together. "Maybe this won't suck so bad?" Blaine stated as he gave Kurt another kiss.

"Who says it's going to suck at all?"

Blaine let out a groan as the two began to make their way down to Blaine's car. _It's going to suck because my dad doesn't like you even though he's never met you. My mom tries to act like she cares but I've never gotten the feeling that she does care at all. Who knows how Cooper will act during this dinner; if he'll be the perfect son or my brother and friend. It's going to suck because you're going to see the side of my family that I don't like. _He wanted to say all of those things, he wanted to say them so badly, but instead he just gave Kurt a small smile and said, "I just have a feeling."

Kurt gave him a tiny frown, then took both of Blaine's hands in his and stopped walking; Blaine stopped as well, turning to face his boyfriend completely, a look of confusion on his face. "Tell you what," Kurt stated, lacing their fingers together as he looked Blaine in the eye. "If it gets to the point where you're uncomfortable or I'm uncomfortable, we'll leave the dinner and go to our park; we'll make it _our_ night."

Blaine exhaled, grinning softly. "Deal. I'll find a way to sneak us out. Although, by the time the champagne gets opened I'm pretty sure we'll be able to walking right in front of my parents and leave and they'd never notice."

"I can tell you kind of don't want to do this."

Blaine had to sigh at that. "Originally I did, but then my father started talking about all of the people he's invited, and I realized that a lot of them are actually rather horrible, and I don't want to put you through that. I thought that the dinner would be a lot smaller than what it turned out to be."

"Aw," Kurt said as he gave Blaine a swift kiss on the nose. "It'll be okay, and if it's not, we have a backup plan."

"We do, don't we?"

"Yes," Kurt stated, letting go of one of Blaine's hands and continuing the walk to Blaine's car. "Now, let's get going; it'll be nice if we show up on time."

..

To Blaine's surprise, no one from his family (and none of his father's business partners and associates) came up to him once he and Kurt arrived to the dinner. They wandered in without any issues, Kurt holding Blaine's hand as they slowly walked over to the appetizers table. "Do you want something to tide you over until the dinner?" Blaine asked, bringing Kurt's hand up to press a gentle kiss to the knuckles.

"I think that might help calm me down, so why not?" Kurt leaned over and picked up a mini plastic plate, then took his hand out of Blaine's hold and placed a few carrots onto the plate. "I feel all..."

"A bit too high class?" Blaine offered as he picked up his own plate.

"Would it be too bad if I started singing S Club 7's _S Club's Party_?"

Blaine chuckled and wrapped his free arm around Kurt's waist. "Probably. Let's save that for later, alright?"

"I'll have to wait, I guess; give me a minute to get over all of this sadness that's overcoming me."

Kurt leaned over and gave Blaine's cheek a kiss, as if on instinct, and he pulled away quick, eyes wide and searching the room to see if anyone was looking at them. "I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't think."

"Kurt, you don't have to apologize for kissing me, okay?" Blaine said as they made their way over to a completely empty table, side stepping the people that were chatting with each other about business or family. "Just, let's just pretend we're on a date in a really odd restaurant."

"You're freaking out too; your hands are all sweaty," Kurt pointed out as they sat down in the chairs.

"I know. Getting myself a little worked up here, huh? I think that once I introduce you to my father and mother I'll be okay, because that'll be over with."

"And what about this girl that your dad is trying to get you to date?"

Blaine shrugged and winked at his boyfriend. "Not nearly as stressful."

Fifteen minutes later, and Blaine had to admit that his nerves were dying down; he was still holding hands with Kurt, and they were laughing together, Kurt telling Blaine about Finn's disastrous attempt at dancing the Lindy Hop with Tina during Glee club practice earlier that day. Kurt, to Blaine, seemed to light up when he talked about Glee club, like the way that he lit up when he spoke about Blaine in certain ways; he loved it when Kurt was happy, and to finally see Kurt do something he'd wanted to do for a while, sing and perform, it made everything worth it.

"God, I love you," he muttered softly.

Kurt paused in his speech to give Blaine a warm smile back. "I love you too."

There was a small cough to their right, and both turned to see Cooper with his wife. "Dad would like you to join him over by main doors, Blaine."

Blaine nodded, then stood up, helping Kurt up after. "You ready?" he asked as they made their way over to Blaine's father and mother.

"A little too late to be asking me this, right?"

"Yeah... I love you."

"I love you too," Kurt whispered back, and then they were standing in front of Blaine's father and mother; his mother remained seated in the chair she was in, a wine glass in her hand. Blaine's father greeted his son, and then turned his gaze on to Kurt.

"Hello, Mr. Anderson. It's a pleasure to meet you," Kurt said, making the first attempt at conversation.

His father stared at Kurt for a moment, before inclining his head a bit. "Ah. So this is Kent."

"Kurt," Kurt replied back, smile still on his face, but Blaine could see the stiffness in his shoulders and how straight his boyfriend was standing; he moved his hand to grip Kurt's hip and squeezed, watching as Kurt's shoulders fell a tad.

_Breathe,_ he told himself, hoping that his father would just let them get back to the dinner without any issues. _It'll all be over soon_.

A part of him knew that he shouldn't have asked Kurt to the dinner; but he'd been selfish, wanting to have his boyfriend there with him, to dance with him and hold his hand, everything that other couples got to do. He inhaled again, his thumb sweeping up and down that small part of skin that he was touching, due to Kurt's shirt having ridden up and out of his dress pants.

"The boy with the heart problem, I see."

_No..._

Blaine turned his head to his brother, who caught his eyes for a moment before he turned away. Blaine's eyebrows furrowed as he glared at his brother, who took up a conversation with a coworker of their father's. _Coward_.

To his left, Kurt just gave his father a grin. "Not anymore."

"I see... You've received treatment, then?"

"That would be correct, sir," Kurt said, with a forced politeness that Blaine only caught because he knew his boyfriend inside and out.

Blaine's father narrowed his eyes before letting out a "hmm" and turning back to the person standing beside him. Blaine exhaled softly, then moved his hand from Kurt's hip to his arm. "Let's go get you back to the table so we can relax until the dinner starts."

Kurt nodded and allowed Blaine to lead him over to their table. "Your father is intimidating for a short man."

"They say intimidating things come in short packages," Blaine teased, pressing a kiss to Kurt's temple as they sat down. "I think in a few minutes my dad will start the dinner and then we can eat. Until then we can - "

"Oh my _god_, Blaine!"

"Oh no," Blaine muttered, his head ducking down and pressing against Kurt's shoulder. "She's here!"

Kurt shifted a little and placed his hand on the small of Blaine's back. "The Johnson girl?"

"Sarah Johnson," Blaine stated, clearing his throat as he sat up straight and turned to face a girl with blond hair pulled up into an up-do.

"Hello, Blaine," Sarah Johnson stated politely when she neared their table. "How are you doing?"

"I'm fine, Sarah, and you?"

Sarah fluttered her eyelashes at him, pursing her lips just a bit before responding with, "Fine. Things have been rather boring as of late; I left my boyfriend."

Blaine inclined his head towards her. "Apologies," he said, his right hand landing on Kurt's thigh.

Sarah seemed to finally notice that Kurt was there with them, and she sent him a beaming smile. "Oh, hello. Are you a friend of Blaine's? What is your name?"

"Ah, Sarah, this is Kurt Hummel," Blaine said as Sarah gave Kurt a polite nod; Kurt sent a smile to her. Blaine inhaled, felt Kurt move his hand from Blaine's back to the hand on Kurt's thigh and squeeze it, then continued. "He's my boyfriend," he said slowly, his eyes watching her body movement to see how she reacted.

Sarah's lips twitched and Blaine could see that she wanted to frown, but instead she allowed her smile to grow. "Oh, well that's nice," she said as she turned around and left the two of them alone at the table

Blaine blinked, watching as she rejoined her father, who was busy conversing with a man that Blaine vaguely recognized as a close friend of his father's. "I... I didn't think it'd go like that," he said, still slightly stunned that she hadn't caused any issues.

"What did you think she'd do?" Kurt asked.

"I thought she'd throw a fit like she usually did when something that she didn't like made itself known."

Kurt didn't respond, only lacing their fingers together, his other hand coming to rest on top of Blaine's.

The time up until the actual dinner didn't bring them any issues, people avoiding them or giving Blaine polite nods, and once the meal had been served, they were joined at the table by Cooper and his wife and child; no conversation passed between them, though, each eating in complete silence. Halfway through the dinner, however, Blaine's father approached their table, his face sporting a frown that had Blaine tightening the grip that he had on Kurt's hand.

"Blaine, I would like to speak to you, _alone_, for just a moment. I'm sure that Kurt wouldn't mind," he said, turning away and heading into the room across from the dinning area.

Kurt gave Blaine a worried glance, one that asked, _will you be okay?_ Blaine shrugged, letting go of Kurt's hand as he stood up from the table, ignoring the concerning gaze that Cooper was giving him as he moved to join his father. Once he was in the room, his father motioned for him to close the door, and he did as commanded.

"You wanted to speak to me, si - "

"How could you," his father started with, cutting Blaine off from his sentence. "How could you bring... _him _here?"

Blaine blinked, taking a step back. "You mean Kurt?"

"Yes, _him._"

Blaine shook his head, confused. "I told you that I would be bringing him as my date."

His father shook his head, bringing a hand up and pressing his fingers to his temple as if to ward off an oncoming headache. "I thought you were only saying this to rile me up; I didn't think that you'd actually bring your... _friend_ with you."

Blaine frowned, anger rising up in him. "Okay, first of all, Kurt's my boyfriend, and I'd really appreciate it if you'd call him that. And second of all, I told you that I'd be bringing him more than once, and not as a way to rile you up. He's my boyfriend, the boy that I'm in love with, and - "

"Oh god, don't say that," his father said sharply.

"...what?"

His dad narrowed his eyes at him. "Don't say that you love him. You don't; you're a teenager. You don't know what love is."

"_Excuse me_?"

"Do not take that tone of voice with me, young man."

Blaine took a step forward, anger flaring up. "No, because I don't understand what you mean. How can I not understand what love is?"

"You're just a teenager, Blaine, and - "

"So what if I'm a teenager, Dad?" Blaine yelled out, taking another step forward. "I remember sitting with him on his couch, holding him because he was too tired to keep himself up, and I remember thinking, _I can't lose this, I want to be here forever, just holding him, loving him, being in his life._ Kurt means everything to me, Dad. Whenever I'm feeling angry or sad, I can call him up and he knows how to cheer me up, or help me get through whatever problem I'm dealing with. He just _knows_ how to do that – just cheer me up at the drop of a hat, and he knows what I need to hear if I need advice.

"When I look into the future, all I know is that he'll be there with me, that whatever I decide to do for my life, he'll be there as well. He's my constant happiness, Dad. I _love_ him. I love him so much; I'd do anything to make him happy. I wish that you'd just see that; me not loving Kurt isn't going to happen."

His father didn't say anything, just stared at him with sharp eyes, and then he inhaled and spoke. "I can see you care for your boyfriend. I still wish you hadn't brought him, seeing as now Sarah and her family knows that - "

"She knows that I'm gay now?"

His father inhaled, then nodded.

"Why is that a bad thing, Dad? What were you going to do when I sent out my wedding invitations? Will me getting married to another man be what _finally_ gets you to realize that me being gay isn't going to change?"

His father took another deep breath. "Blaine - "

Blaine shook his head and took a few steps back, heading towards the door. "I'm going to go back to Kurt, Dad."

His dad sighed, but nodded. "Okay. We can continue this during a more acceptable time."

Blaine bit his lower teeth, but didn't say anything else as he opened the door and headed over to Kurt, who was taking small bites of the dessert at the table. Taking a deep breath, Blaine calmed himself down enough as he slid into his chair, his hand immediately finding Kurt's thigh.

Kurt placed his fork down and put both hands on top of Blaine's. "Are you okay?"

Blaine opened his mouth to say that he was, but instead he shook his head. "Dad issues. I'll be okay later though."

"Do you want to leave?"

"That'd be nice, actually."

They got their chance to leave once people started mingling, getting up from their tables and crossing the room to speak to each other. Blaine, gripping Kurt's hand tightly, maneuvered them around the room, sidestepping people and going out of his way to avoid people who'd want to speak to them. They were nearing the door when Sarah Johnson stepped into their path.

"Uh..." She stated, giving them a quick glance. "You two weren't trying to _leave_ were you?"

Kurt nodded. "We are, actually."

Sarah held a hand to her mouth, "Huh," and then stepped forward -

And promptly tripped one of the waiters, causing him to crash to the ground, the food he'd been carrying scattering on the ground, or flying up and hitting the nearby people. Sarah grinned at them, then took a step to the side. "Go," she stated.

..

"Oh my god, I can't believe that she helped us get out!" Kurt said, his arm around his waist as the two of them made there way back to Blaine's car. "I for sure thought that she would have informed your dad that we were leaving."

Blaine, still grinning, still laughing softly to himself as he remembered the looks on the faces of those who had been hit by the food. They'd looked like the end of the world had arrived. "I have to agree with you; I thought that she would have stopped us from leaving, but I guess that she's not the same girl from two years ago. She's not so... evil."

"Wow, was she really _evil_?"

Blaine opened the car door and Kurt slid in; closing the passenger door, Blaine hurried over to the driver's door and got in, keys already out and ready to be put into the ignition. "I had longer hair before I met you, and when I turned her down for a date on account of, you know, not liking girls, she snuck into my room a night that she stayed over and put a pack of gum in my hair."

Kurt cringed. "I can only imagine the pain it took to get out."

Blaine shrugged. "Yeah, it wasn't pretty, I have to say, but I got use to the shorter hair cut."

"I like the short hair," Kurt said, reaching over to take Blaine's unoccupied hand as Blaine pulled out of their parking spot and drove down the road, heading for the freeway. "I just like _you_."

"Aww, I like you too, Kurt." Blaine exhaled. "I'm sorry that the dinner didn't go as planned, and that we didn't get our dance."

"Hey," Kurt said softly, leaning in slightly. "We'll get our dance at at the park, okay? We can even mix it up: Lindy Hop, waltz, swing... the _tango_," he finished, the last word being drawn out in a purr.

Blaine shuddered. "I didn't know you knew how to dance the tango?"

Kurt pulled away. "I know some, not as much as you, Mr. I-Took-Ballroom-For-Fun."

"Hey, ballroom _is_ fun."

"Hmm.. I guess you just have to have the right partner, then," Kurt replied.

The rest of the drive to the pond was spent in silence, their hands laced together and Kurt humming a small tune the entire time. While Blaine enjoyed immensely the time when he and Kurt did nothing but talk, he also enjoyed the times where they just sat there together, not speaking, hands touching or laying down together. He just enjoyed _being_ with Kurt; because Kurt was still there. Kurt was still alive.

"Do you think that there will be any ducks there? Maybe Hezekiah will have stopped by?" Kurt asked once they pulled up to the parking lot near the pond.

Blaine let out a laugh as they got out of the car, Kurt grabbing the blanket from the backseat as he went. "No, I think that they're probably not here at this time of night. But that's even better for us; we'll have the area all to ourselves."

As it turned out, they did have the area all to themselves. The benches were empty, no ducks or people around, and Blaine inhaled deeply as he took the blanket from Kurt and placed it on the nearest bench, the one bench that they always sat on when they visited the pond. He glanced up, watching as his boyfriend walked over to join him on the bench, still humming that tune underneath his breath.

"What's that?"

"Hmm? What's what?"

Blaine nudged their shoulders together. "That tune you're humming; I don't think I've heard of it before."

"Oh. It's called _All Souls Night_. I've been listening to a lot of Loreena McKennitt lately. _Bonefires dot the rolling hillsides, figures dance around and around. To drums that pulse out echoes of darkness, moving to the pagan sound,_" he sang, twisting his body around to grab Blaine's hands as he stood up, pulling his boyfriend along with him as he did so. "_Somewhere in a hidden memory, images float before my eyes. Of fragrant nights of straw and of bonfires, and dancing till the next sunrise._"

Kurt was turning them around in a circle, his arms around Blaine's shoulders and a smile on his face.

"_I can see the lights in the distance, trembling in the dark cloak of night. Candles and lanterns are dancing, dancing. A waltz on All Souls Night,_" he finished, bringing his body in to rest against Blaine's, his head falling onto Blaine's shoulder. "I love you, Blaine Anderson."

Blaine let out a sigh of complete content. "I love you too, Kurt Hummel," he said as he brought up his hands to place them on Kurt's back. His left hand had barely settled when he felt Kurt flinch at his touch and he immediately pulled away. "Kurt?"

Kurt was avoiding his eyes, his hand falling to play with his sleeve. "I'm okay," he said.

"Kurt, I didn't ask if you were okay, but - "

"It's nothing to freak out about, okay? I just s-slipped in the shower this morning and hit my back," Kurt said, leaning in and giving Blaine a gentle kiss, smiling that slow and beautiful smile only for Blaine. "Let's go back to dancing, okay? I'd like a few more before we have to get me home."

Blaine furrowed his eyebrows, but nodded, knowing that tomorrow he'd ask Kurt again how he hurt his back; Kurt didn't lie unless he felt like he had too, so whatever he was lying about must have been rather big for him to think it was lie worthy.

"Okay, let's keep dancing then."

He reached out and pulled Kurt back in, this time placing his hands on Kurt's waist and Kurt placed his hands back around Blaine's shoulders. They swayed together, Blaine humming out a tune for them to move to, and eventually, once he'd finished one song, he asked, "Does this count as a cross off for number eighteen?"

Kurt let out a laugh. "Yes, yes it does."

_Number 18: romantic/important dinner date plus dance._

Humming softly, Kurt leaned forward until his lips were barely touching Blaine's. "_Embrasse-moi_," he whispered.

"What?"

"Kiss me," Kurt translated.

And Blaine obliged.

..

Kurt loved being more active in school; he could now participate in gym class (which he honestly never thought he'd be excited about), he could go on the field trips, and he was now in Glee club. But apparently, good things always came with a price.

With a small grunt, Kurt found himself wincing as he picked himself up from the floor, his hand moving to his back as it throbbed with pain from being thrown into the locker. Biting his lip, he glanced up to stare into Dave Karofsky's face, looking at the angry glare there. "Now you know your place, loser," Karofsky stated, giving Kurt one last shove into the lockers before continuing down the hall.

Taking a deep breath, Kurt calmed himself down, and turned to continue to class, only to be met with a slushy to the face. He inhaled sharply, his eyes burning and his facing numbing at the coldness. He could hear the laughter of Azimio Adams, as well as the laughter of Karofsky, traveling down the hall and bit back a few tears that weren't the cause of the slushy.

_It'll be okay, Kurt. It'll all be okay one day._

* * *

><p><em><strong>Author's notes: <strong>_

Oh god, guys, I'm so sorry that this took so long! I was hit with some of the biggest writer's block that I've ever had, and this chapter would just not come out. I still think it's pretty crappy and definitely not one of my best, but it's done, the writer's block is GONE and we're moving on to the next chapter :D

The song that Kurt sort of sings in this chapter is called _All Souls Night_ by _Loreena McKinnett_. If you're going to listen to it (and you SHOULD), I recommend the live version of it, because Loreena McKinnett is honestly one of the only people I've listened to who sounds better live than in her albums.

Anyway, please let me know what you thought! It would make my day.


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